New research proposes that Dante Alighieri's 14th-century work Inferno contains an early description of a massive asteroid striking Earth. Timothy Burbery of Marshall University argues the poem depicts Satan as a cosmic impactor that reshapes the planet. The interpretation links literary elements to modern understanding of meteor impacts.
Burbery compares the descent of Satan in the Divine Comedy to a high-speed collision in the Southern Hemisphere. The force is said to have carved out the nine circles of Hell as a giant crater while pushing up Mount Purgatory on the opposite side of the globe. He draws parallels to the Chicxulub impact that ended the age of dinosaurs and to the interstellar object Oumuamua.